It's time for us to host the day's author, and I am tickled to death to have Great van der Rol here today on the blog! Please give her a warm welcome and read on for a change to win some great SFR. Welcome, Greta!
Thanks so much for giving me room on your blog. I'm really excited to announce the imminent publication of the second, and concluding, “Iron Admiral” book.In the first novel, “The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy”, hostility is growing between the vast Ptorix Empire and the Human Confederacy. Admiral Chaka Saahren, hero of the Confederacy, is dismissed from his post after he is blamed for the massacre of ptorix miners on an obscure planet.On a search for the real culprits he accepts a job as a security guard on the mysterious planet Tisyphor. There, he meets brilliant systems engineer Allysha Marten. Saahren never had much time for women but he falls head over heels in love with this one. Allysha has taken one last job to rid her of debts and her cheating husband and despite her misgivings soon finds herself falling for the man she knows as Brad Stone. When she learns that Brad Stone is really Chaka Saahren her world falls apart – she believes he is responsible for the deaths of millions of civilians, among them, her father.
Here's a brief excerpt from the book, when Saahren meets Allysha after he has saved her from an assault by a drunken miner.
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” He glanced over his shoulder at his fallen opponent. “Let me see you to your quarters.”
The alarm faded from her face as she sized him up. “I’m Allysha Marten.”
“I know. I’m Brad Stone.” He’d very nearly said Chaka Saahren. He’d better keep that fact to himself until he could find out what her objection was.
She smiled and his heart fluttered. “Thank you, Brad Stone.” “Where do you live?”
“The mine.In the old ptorix mine manager’s quarters.”
He walked beside her, not too close, not too fast, through the tunnel of jungle that led to the mine. “You’re comfortable with the ptorix?”
“Yes. Very. Where I come from—Carnessa—we live together peaceably. Well… mostly. I grew up with Tors.”
Tors. That must be her word for ptorix. “And that’s how you understand their computer systems?”
“I suppose. I can speak their language and that always helps.”
He almost stopped. “Their language? But that’s very difficult.”
She laughed, a low, musical chuckle. “Not too bad if you learn as a child.”
The mine’s metal doors gleamed in the lights around the entrance. Saahren pressed the lock and the personnel door slid open. He stood aside to let her go first, along the wide central tunnel that led to the control room.
She turned off into a side tunnel. A few more steps and she stopped in front of a stairway. “I live up there. Thanks again.”
Those wonderful eyes held him for just a moment and then she was gone. He stared after her. He should have asked her to dinner or a drink or … or… Idiot. Fool. Standing there like a tongue-tied teenager. She smiles at me and I melt. She speaks and I just listen to the lilt in her words. He sighed. I’m in love.
If you'd like an idea of what I think Saahren might look like, you might enjoy this post from my blog. Or just enjoy
perving at him.
Things (of course) get worse before they get better. At the end of the book, Saahren has been re-instated and he and Allysha have averted a cataclysmic viral attack on her home planet. She is certainly not open to Saahren's suggestion of marriage, but things are much too volatile for her to go home, so she accepts his offer of a half-year contract with the Star Fleet.That's where book two - “The Iron Admiral: Deception” - begins. Allysha is working for the Star Fleet in the Confederacy's capital city. Everybody still wants a piece of her. Saahren has been promoted to Grand Admiral but that doesn't bring him any closer to winning Allysha. Allysha's husband has been dragooned once again to deliver his wife so she can complete a job for the shadowy Galactic People's Republic. If he fails, he dies. We follow Saahren and Allysha as he learns he can't order her around or keep her in a cocoon, while she learns that truth is so very often a matter of perception. Eventually, she must confront the issues of the past and deal with them on her own. Before it's over both Allysha and Saahren will be confronted with excruciating decisions. I'm proud of the book. I'm sure you'll find it's a worthy successor
to Book One and all your questions will be answered. To celebrate, I'd like to offer your readers a chance to win one of two e-books as soon as the novel is published.(Comment below for an entry, and Greta will tell us all how her give-away will work)
Greta van der Rol loves writing science fiction with a large dollop of good old, healthy romance.She lives not far from the coast in Queensland, Australia and enjoys photography and cooking when she isn't bent over the computer. She has a degree in history and a background in building information systems, both of which go a long way toward helping her in her writing endeavours.
Buy "The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy" from
Smashwords for Kindle, ePub and more as well as print
Amazon US for Kindle and print
Omnilit
Barnes & Noble for your Nook
Website: http://gretavanderrol.com/
Facebook: Author – Greta van der Rol
Twitter: @GretavdR